If He Hadn't Been a Rat
by alex0000
Summary: Oneshot. James, Sirius and Peter transform for the first time, but not all goes to plan with Peter's transformation. Slightly crackfic. TW: character death. One instance of swearing.


_**A/N**: This is some sort of bizarre thing I thought of at work today. It's weird, I'm sorry. And probably slightly sad. I just couldn't help writing it._

**-o0o-**

The trio crouched over the textbook, checking for the last time that they had managed to cram all the information they possibly could into their already aching skulls. They had never studied so hard for this before in their lives, not for their end of year examinations, or for their OWLs. Remus would be proud, if only Remus knew what they were planning. It just seemed worth it for this, so, so worth it. They had already taken the necessary potions, spent hours deep in meditative thought, and now they were about to perform one last piece of advanced magic: the spell itself.

"So, just to get this straight, we cast the spell on ourselves once, and then we never have to cast it again?" Peter frowned as he spoke, his brain not quite as sharp as the others'.

James, the self-professed transfiguration master and acquirer of advanced textbooks, sighed, "You have to cast it every time, it only has to be with a wand and verbally the first time."

Peter groaned, "I'm terrible at non-verbal magic."

"Yeah, it's just like casting a patronus." Sirius chipped in cheerfully, looking up from the musty book for the first time.

"I _can't_ cast a patronus..." Peter whined miserably.

Sirius looked bashed. "Oh. Shit yeah. Sorry mate." He laid a sympathetic hand on Peter's shoulder for a moment, and then grinned. "So are we going to do this or what? The celestial lunar rock isn't going to wait for you to stop pitying yourself."

The smallest boy scowled and twiddled with his wand nervously, knowing that James would manage to complete it first time, Sirius moments later, and him several attempts later, if at all.

James got to his feet, wand in hand, and a determined look upon his face. He shut his eyes briefly, focussing on the animal he had often discovered in his potion induced introspection, before making a complicated movement with his wand and intoning, "corbestiae aperire." For several moments nothing happened, but then slowly and steadily his body changed, growing brown fur, thinning but growing at the same time, and falling onto all fours. White nubs appeared on the top of his skull, and grew until an impressive set of antlers was perched upon his head.

The two boys looked in awe as the powerful, yet delicate animal turned its head towards them. Sirius' mouth fell open, and a gobsmacked "Cor!" fell from his lips. Recovering himself he got to his feet, the textbook long abandoned, and stroked the stag on the neck, trying to come to terms with the fact that his friend was the large forest animal now in front of him. "You almost bloody got me with those prongs, you idiot!"

The stag - James - snorted in a response that sounded suspiciously like a laugh, and took a step forward, looking for all intents and purposes as if he'd been a stag all his life. He rubbed his snout on Sirius' face, making him chuckle and push him away.

"Come on Pete, say hello to the nice woodland beastie." Sirius called, noticing that their friend hadn't made any effort to move.

Timidly, he got to his feet, and held out his hand to the stag's nose, as one would do to a horse. Sirius let out a hearty chuckle at how nervous Peter was being around his roommate. "Come on back to us James, I think you've scared the mouse."

"I am _not_ a -" Peter spluttered, his face turning puce, but was cut off by the sight of the stag transforming back into their friend.

James ruffled his hair nonchalantly as everyone stared at him, acting his usual arrogant, cocky self. He cleared his throat, putting on a remarkable haughty Lily Evans impression. "It's _antlers_, not prongs."

In one quick move Sirius made to lash out in good natured retaliation, but the Seeker was faster than him, and quickly avoided the blow. "Prongs." He stated stubbornly, "You're prongs... I mean, your stag has prongs."

"You know what I kind of like that..." The newly named Prongs declared, galloping around the room on his two legs and trying the name out for size, singing it to the tune of the Hogwarts school song. "Prongy, Prongy, Prongy Prongy Prongy, stab Mr Siriuuuussss."

Sirius and Peter both laughed at his antics, before Sirius sobered up and drew his own wand, the room going quiet and even James standing still. He cleared his throat and said the incantation. Nothing appeared to happen, and he screwed up his face in concentration again, trying the spell for a second time. This time there was a long pause, and then slowly he began to transform, his black hair covering more and more of his body until he was covered in a thick shaggy coat, and then falling to all fours and becoming a large black dog. A low growl came from his throat, and Sirius jumped, surprising himself by the noise. The dog wrinkled his nose, and then yapped, making his tail wag in excitement and bounding towards James.

"Merlin's beard, you look like the Grim!" James exclaimed as he tried to avoid the slobber Sirius was trying to wipe on him, before swatting at him angrily as he changed tack and attempted to hump his leg. Eventually James gave a sharp rap on the end of his snout, and Sirius ran away, tail between his legs to hide behind Peter.

Seeing the amusement in the situation, Peter bent down and scratched Sirius' head, chuckling when he made odd noises in contentment and cocked his head in a plea for more scratching. Finally he transformed back into his usual body, grinning wildly from the adrenaline.

"That was amazing! Pete, you've got to have a go now!" Sirius enthused, "We've had such good luck with our animagus forms. Moony is going to be amazed."

At his words Peter paled, swallowed, and wiped a slightly pudgy hand across his clammy forehead. He hated having the spotlight on him, especially when he had to produce magic. He'd never gotten over the fact that his friends could all produce Patronuses and he couldn't. That was supposed to be easier magic than this, despite what Remus had told him about the different branches of magic and how some people were better at some than others. James was an example of that he supposed, but then he wasn't really bad at anything.

His hand shook as he gripped his wand tightly in a sweaty fist, trying to remember how to perform the wand movements.

"Stay calm, we know you can do it. Remember the meditation we've been doing?"

With a nod and a heavy swallow, Pete managed to get his mouth around the words "corbestiae aperire", and performed the hand movement, to no avail. He tried again, and then again, heat rising to his face. He was sure that he was doing everything right, he'd taken all the same potions as the others, and spent twice as much time meditating as they had. None of them had made any comment at Sirius taking two attempts, but then he'd managed it in the end, and his dog had been rather impressive.

"Mate, meditate for a moment if you need to." Sirius suggested.

Peter lowered his wand, focussing on his inner being. He didn't know how long he stood there, but eventually all thoughts emptied out of his head, and he felt refreshed enough to try again. With a firmer voice he muttered the incantation, and this time he was shrinking, and shrinking, getting closer and closer to the ground. The sensation felt a lot like falling, but he didn't want to stop, he was determined to know what he would become, and to do something right for once. It was only when the floor stopped getting closer and he was surrounded by the darkness of the folds of his overcoat that he realised something was wrong.

His body was now tiny, nothing more than the size of a clenched fist, and he couldn't work out anyway to move it. Heck, he couldn't even work out how to breathe. Or rather, he was breathing, but nothing seemed to be happening. There was no way of getting oxygen into his body. And there was no sign or sound from his friends. Peter flapped his body in panic, trying to work out how to use it. None of the others had had this problem, and where were they? Where were they...? The lack of oxygen was getting to his head, and it was becoming harder and harder to flap his suffocating body...

When Peter had begun to transform James and Sirius had shared a surprised look, which rapidly turned into one of sheer panic. As soon as they regained their senses they rushed over to the bundle of cloth that had been abandoned on the floor, crouching beside them for sign of their friend, scared to move them in case they crushed him. Eventually as the seconds ticked by they realised that they had to do something, and gently started lifting the robes away, finding Peter flailing uselessly in the midst of them.

"Pete! Pete! Change back!"

"For fucks sake, change back!"

Sirius dived to the floor to pick up the wand from where he had transformed, having dropped it in the process. He turned around and with a shaking voice shouted, "Aguamenti." A thick spray of water drenched the clothes, hoping that it would buy Peter enough time to transform back into his human self.

It was too late. The small goldfish on the floor had stopped moving.


End file.
